“Then there’s no-moh—no-moh—Oh, I can’t remember it, Blake,” and Marie appealed to him.
“Yes, that’s Alice. Mabel is wep-da-se-nah—maiden of the green corn, and I’m wah-tu-go-mo—bluebird of the mountain. All of them charming, I think—much too nice for me, mine is.”
“They all become you,” declared Jack, with an exaggerated bow.
“We’ll have to write them down or we’ll forget them,” suggested Natalie, as she twirled the silver ring on her finger.
“And now let’s talk about camping,” suggested Alice. “You boys—where can they go, Mabel?” and she appealed to the young hostess.
“Well, I like that!” cried Phil. “After all our work—togging up like ‘Lo, the poor Indian,’ and bringing you those names—to calmly tell us we can leave. I guess not. We’re going to stay, and help you arrange about your camp.”
“Oh, we can do it ourselves,” declared his sister. “We are going to be very practical Camp Fire Girls.”
“Yes, they’ll throw a whole pound of butter away because an ant happens to get in it, and they’ll wash dishes through two waters,” commented Jack.
“Why, don’t you _always_ wash dishes through two waters, when you boys go camping?” asked Marie in surprise.
“Never! When we finish a meal we put the dishes to soak in the lake, and when we come back the fish have them clean for us!” declared Phil.
“Oh, you boys are hopeless!” laughed Natalie. “You must promise to reform, or you can never come to our camp.”
“Then you are really going to try life in the woods?” asked Jack.
“Of course!” exclaimed Marie. “Didn’t you think we meant it?”
The shaking of three heads told the story of doubt.
“Well, we are!” insisted Alice. “Where would be a good place to go?”
“Green Lake!” answered the trio of youths as one.
“That’s because you boys have been there two or three times,” remarked Marie.
“No, but really it is,” went on Blake, who, having signaled to his chums by a series of winks, took the leadership in the argument he hoped would be convincing. “Green Lake is handy to get to, there are fine woods, there is good water to drink, plenty of camping sites, and the lake can’t be surpassed. There are boats to hire—motors and others—and supplies are easy to get. It’s the best place around here to camp. We boys are going there this summer——”